SHORT VIDEO INTRODUCTION

Literature Review and Its Purpose

  • Literature review: the synthesis of the entire body of all the original research studies in a specific topic of interest; not just reporting them but engaging, discussing, and synthesizing the body of work in its entirety.
  • Its purpose is to demonstrate the researcher’s grasp on the topic of interest and to support their argument for the necessity of the proposed study

Using Libraries and Online Databases

  • Access online databases through a library’s website
  • Schools often have librarians for specific fields to help navigate databases in a specific area of inquiry.

Using Search Engines

  • Most databases have similar search engines that are easy to navigate
  • Use “advanced search” rather than quick searches
  • Boolean operators: using AND, OR, NOT to combine keywords in searching

Using Interlibrary Loan

  • Interlibrary loan: the ability to access inventory of books and articles available in a library other than your own.
  • WKU Interlibrary Loan
    • https://library.wku.edu.cn/en/interlibrary-loan-request-form

Writing Annotated Bibliographies

  • Annotated bibliography: a brief summary of the article or book read, including explanations and comments on the citations.

Creating a Guiding Table

  • Creating a table helps to understand the studies better and grasp what information needs to go into the literature review.
  • Assigning each study an ID number can help organize them and can be the first column of the table.
  • Other columns include author names, publication and study dates, locations, theories used, information on the participants, and so on.

Using the Conceptual Graph

  • Reviewing the literature can cause adjustments to be made on the conceptual graph of constructs and variables.

Organizing Your Work

  • Researchers have their own styles of organizing literature.
  • No matter the style, one should organize the literature logically

Conceptualizing the Literature: Patterns

  • Finding patterns in the literature is a simple and effective way to organize a literature review

Reading Critically

  • Active reading, where one reads the information on the page while simultaneously considering the information given and coming up with additional ideas, leads to critical thinking.

Analyzing Studies

  • First look at the concepts, theories, and perspectives the researchers are using; ask questions regarding their intentions and if they considered other ideas.
  • Next look closely at the methodologies employed

Important questions to consider in each step of the review(Snyder, 2019).

  • Phase 1: design
    • Is this review needed and what is the contribution of conducting this review?
    • What is the potential audience of this review?
    • What is the speci c purpose and research question(s) this review will be addressing?
    • What is an appropriate method to use of this review’s specific purpose?
    • What is the search strategy for this speci c review? (including search terms, databases, inclusion and exclusion criteria etc.)
  • Phase 2: conduct
    • Does the search plan developed in phase one work to produce an appropriate sample or does it need adjustment?
    • What is the practical plan for selecting articles?
    • How will the search process and selection be documented?
    • How will the quality of the search process and selection be assessed?
  • Phase 3: analysis
    • What type of information needs to be abstracted to fulfill the purpose of the specific review?
    • What type of information is needed to conduct the specific analysis?
    • How will reviewers be trained to ensure the quality of this process?
    • How will this process be documented and reported?
  • Phase 4: structuring and writing the review
    • Are the motivation and the need for this review clearly communicated?
    • What standards of reporting are appropriate for this specific review?
    • What information needs to be included in the review?
    • Is the level of information provided enough and appropriate to allow for transparency so readers can judge the quality of the review?
    • The results clearly presented and explained?
    • Is the contribution of the review clearly communicated?

Systematic Reviews Versus Narrative Literature Reviews

  • There are four major factors that make a systematic review different from a literature review:
    • the focus is different;
    • selection bias is reduced;
    • rigorous steps and procedures are followed, and
    • assessment and analyses of studies are involved.
  • Selection bias: the researcher’s tendency to look closely at scientific work that aligns with their ideas and overlooks work that may oppose them.
  • Methodology: how data are collected
  • Meta-analyses: statistically recalculate the data from original studies based on standard criteria.

14 Types of ReviewGrant & Booth (2009)

  • Critical review
  • Literature review
  • Mapping review/systematic map
  • Meta-analysis
  • Mixed studies review/mixed methods review
  • Overview
  • Qualitative systematic review / Qualitative evidence synthesis
  • Rapid review
  • Scoping review
  • State-of-the-art review
  • Systematic review
  • Systematic search and review
  • Systematized review
  • Umbrella review

Discussion

  1. What type of information is commonly included when writing an annotated bibliography? (Name all that apply.)
  2. How is the systematic review different from a literature review?
  3. What distinguishes meta-analyses from all other types of reviews?
  4. What is the role of hypotheses on our literature review?
  5. How can we start our literature review?
  6. What is selection bias and what types of reviews are more prone to include selection bias?

Summary

  • Writing a literature review is a rewarding task with added perks, such as
      1. painting a picture on what the scientific literature in your topic really looks like;
      1. pulling out studies that are relevant to your topic and showing your organizational skills in making sense of them;
      1. displaying your creativity in designing the literature review that best supports and complements your study;
      1. exercising critical thinking by looking at the studies from various perspectives; and
      1. writing a logical, critical, and analytical literature review that supports your proposed study and naturally ends with your research question(s) or hypotheses.

Terms

  • Annotated bibliography: a brief summary of the article or book you read, including the focus of the study, the methodology used, the findings, and any other important information that directly relates to your research topic.
  • Boolean operators: operators that are used to conduct searches in the library and other databases (i.e., AND, OR, NOT).
  • Interlibrary loan: the possibility of borrowing articles and books from other libraries that may not be available in your local or university library.
  • Literature review: the body of literature surrounding a specific topic of interest to the researcher.
  • Meta-analyses: the type of systematic reviews that statistically recalculate the data from the original studies based on standard criteria. Meta-analyses are a rigorous way of conducting systematic reviews.
  • Methodology of the systematic reviews: answers the question about how the articles and books (and other media) included in the systematic review were collected, what keywords were used, what techniques were used to narrow down the number of published records, and what rules were followed for selecting the final sample of articles and books.
  • Selection bias: biases that surround the way we select and decide which articles to use for our literature review. To avoid selection bias, we often conduct a systematic review of the literature on the topic.
  • Systematic review: a review of the literature that follows specific guidelines in collecting studies on a topic. It is usually less prone to biases.

More to Read

  • Grant, M. J., & Booth, A. (2009). A typology of reviews: An analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 26(2), 91–108.
  • Snyder, H. (2019). Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines. Journal of Business Research, 104, 333–339.
  • Writing a literature reivew(https://usq.pressbooks.pub/howtodoscience/chapter/writing-a-literature-review/)
  • How to create a table for a literature review summary(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4jeDG0Cbvw)
  • LITERATURE REVIEW: Step by Step Guide for Writing an Effective Literature Review(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc_Yu_61Ymg)
  • Literature Review Preparation Creating a Summary Table(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX2R9FzYhT0)
  • Five tips for developing useful literature summary tables for writing review articles(https://ebn.bmj.com/content/24/2/32)
  • Literature review basic(https://usi.libguides.com/literature-review-basics/tables)
  • Literature review matrix(https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/assignments/literaturereview/matrix)
  • Literature review template(https://researchguides.library.vanderbilt.edu/peabody/litreviews/table)

Assignment

  • What to do
    • You need to submit “Literature Synthesis Report” that contains
      • Motivation,
      • importance,
      • synthesis,
      • findings,
      • conceptual graph,
      • summary table, and
      • reference
  • Requirement
    • PDF format
    • file name should be include your student id and name
      • stuID_name_title.pdf (e.g. 1111111_ChungilChae_SelfIntroduction.pdf)
  • Due date
    • by DATE(Sun) 11:59PM
    • NO LATE SUBMISSION ALLOWED!!!!

Reference

Grant, M. J., & Booth, A. (2009). A typology of reviews: An analysis of 14 review types and associated methodologies. Health Information & Libraries Journal, 26(2), 91–108.
Pajo, B. (2022). Introduction to research methods: A hands-on approach. Sage.
Snyder, H. (2019). Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines. Journal of Business Research, 104, 333–339.